Killing of three in Nottingham is depressingly familiar – my sister was stabbed to death at 23 by a mentally ill woman
THE failures that left a homicidal maniac free to kill three innocent people on the streets of Nottingham are depressingly familiar.
Back in October 1992, my sister Katie was stabbed to death at the age of 23 by a young woman she was caring for at a hostel in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey.
Like Nottingham attacker Valdo Calocane, Katie’s killer — Ehri Inweh — was a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of violence.
She had been repeatedly sectioned and released back into the community.
Both killers spiralled into psychosis after neglecting to take their medication, and the danger they posed went unheeded.
Inweh was continually given the benefit of the doubt by well-meaning do-gooders who viewed her risk through rose-tinted glasses — as appears to have happened with Calocane.
In Inweh’s case, there was also a catastrophic communication failure between health professionals and her social worker — a common feature in such tragedies.
Fifteen months before killing Katie, Inweh tried to stab a young woman on a secure ward and four nurses were required to restrain her.
The attack was not mentioned by her social worker or psychiatrist when she was released two months later to the Mind hostel, from which residents with a potential for violence should have been excluded.
A year later, after Inweh stopped taking her medication, she was discovered ranting at strangers in Hyde Park and it took several police officers to bring her under control.
She was sectioned again and made threats to kill her social worker but a month later was deemed well enough to return to the hostel where Katie began working after completing a psychology degree.
Inweh’s discharge was on the condition she would take long-lasting, slow-release injections and daily tablets to suppress her illness — but she failed to do so.
Two days after skipping an appointment for an injection, she stabbed Katie 14 times with a large kitchen knife.
The next year, an Old Bailey jury was directed to find her not guilty by reason of insanity and she was sent to Broadmoor.
I sympathise with Dr Sanjoy Kumar, father of Nottingham victim Grace, who wanted Calocane tried for murder and feels “justice has not been done”.
It still rankles that Katie’s killer was not found guilty of murder with the caveat of being insane as, in my opinion, it reduced the significance of what happened to Katie.
A lack of accountability and glib response from officials who failed Inweh — costing Katie her life — also still grates.
“Lessons would be learned,” we were promised. Yet there have been 2,235 mental health-related homicides in the UK since Katie died, according to the Hundred Families charity for relatives of victims.
Many of those deaths could have been prevented.
Rishi Sunak last year pledged an extra £150million up to April 2025 to provide crisis care for the mentally ill and relieve a chronic beds shortage.
But sustained investment is required to overhaul a neglected system which, 31 years after Katie died, continues to treat safety as a calculated risk.